Page 66 of Summer Breakdown
Jasmine’s eyebrows rise. “Oh.”
“Is that okay?” Frankie asks.
“Yeah, of course.” Jasmine places her bag down next to Frankie’s chair and wrings her hands. A family lunch… but parents hate her.
“Sure?” Ezra calls from the kitchen. He’s showing Marcel how to cut lamb. “I can cancel on them.”
“They’ll turn up anyway,” Cam says, as she takes photos with Lani. They give peace signs and pouts, and Jasmine knows it will end up in the scrapbook.
“True,” Ezra says. “But I’ll fix it if it’s not ideal.”
“It’s okay,” Jasmine says. “Honestly.”
Mike’s parents couldn’t stand Jasmine. They loved Lani and Marcel, so she put up with it, but if someone could die from a passive-aggressive comment about her hair, she’d be dead a thousand times over.
Ezra’s parents shouldn’t be a big deal. It doesn’t matter if they don’t like her. It might matter with Frankie. She’s her friend in a way Jasmine can admit to now. She’s not sure if they’ll ever be more than that for real (though their texts have been increasingly flirty and she’s going insane with it), but she wants Frankie’s parents to like her.
“Come look at this,” Frankie says. She takes Jasmine outside with her hand against her wrist. Jasmine tries to figure out how to get their fingers to touch, but she’s not sure she actively wants them to. She has to sit through a lunch and she doesn’t want to think about Frankie’s hands the entire time.
Frankie bends down and motions for Jasmine to join her. It’s a small, dark, slightly wet corner behind a planter, but when her eyes adjust, she sees there’s a frog sleeping.
“Oh my God,” Jasmine whispers. “Ilove frogs so much.”
Frankie hums. When Jasmine looks at her, her eyes move quickly away from her face. “I know. And look…” She shows her the large pot of oxeye daisies. “Lani would love these.”
“She would,” Jasmine replies. “Don’t show her. She’ll find some scissors.” Jasmine wants to grow so many flowers that Lani can wheel around with a little basket and make bouquets every week.
Frankie laughs, her voice quiet. “Ezra would let her have them.”
The garden is romantic. Jasmine could picture having dinner outside with a glass of wine. She doesn’t even like wine. When she pictures it, Frankie is there too.
“Okay, last thing,” Frankie says, holding on to her hand as she pulls her to the corner. The garden is well planned and practical, but everything about it is pretty too. She might ask Ezra to fix her dodgy vegetable patch. It was there before she moved in, and it hasn’t been a priority for her. Marcel would love to grow food, though. Jasmine thinks he wants to be a farmer. She’s tried to tell him most farmers inherit farms, but he could do something outside.
Frankie shows her the shed. It’s a small, green wooden shed hidden in the corner.
“I looked for spiders already,” Frankie says, as Jasmine checks the corners thoroughly.
When they walk through, it’s like a Tardis. It’s full of tools, a workbench, and so many pots and trays Jasmine feels a little overwhelmed. It’s neat. Windows and shelving, some stools. Marcel would love it in here. She might go get her phone so she can replicate it at home.
“Marcel would like this, right?” Frankie asks.
Jasmine blinks. “Did you find something for everyone?”
Frankie shrugs. “Well, I was looking for frogs for you, and then I found the daises, and I didn’t want Marcel to be left out.”
Oh.Oh. She’s so kind. Jasmine knew Frankie was nice, even when she wanted to pretend she wasn’t. But now sheknows her children. It’s not like they could casually date and she’d introduce them in eight months when they were serious. Frankie knows her family. Lani is attached. Marcel likes Ezra enough that he might talk to him about what’s going on in his head. She’d lose them, too, if anything happened.
How is this a thought in her mind when they’ve never even been on a real date? Frankie might be fucking girls every week for all she knows.
Jasmine swallows, feeling hot suddenly. She can’t push Frankie against the wall to kiss her because they did that last time, and it’s not their thing anymore. If she wanted something with Frankie, it would have to be slow. Thought about. “That’s sweet.”
Frankie smiles. “Ezra would teach him if he wanted. He wants to work outdoors, right?”
“Yeah,” Jasmine replies. “I think he wants to do carpentry right now, but he’d love to work on a farm or something. There’s a farmhouse down in the middle of the village. You know it? I’ve been looking at it, even though it’s not for sale.”
“You’ll have to fight Ezra for it.”
Jasmine raises her eyebrow. “Oh?”
